Comment by keithblaha | Hacker News Reader

Comment by keithblaha | Hacker News Reader

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From my limited perspective, it doesn't sound like it's your decision to make. If you've made your opinions clear to the CEO, that's great and you've already fulfilled your duty. Let the co-founders sort it out between them, it may take time to transition the lackluster technical co-founder into a new role. If business is going well, it's unlikely he would leave the company though given he is probably got a while left to vest. As long as he isn't hindering your work and creating infighting/tension in a power struggle, it doesn't sound like he's a problem.

Honestly, it sounds more like you're jealous of his compensation relative to yours. Has your compensation been adjusted since you started working there? If you're now doing the work of a co-founder, you should be compensated as such. If your role truly has escalated, they shouldn't take issue with you asking to have an adjustment made to your compensation in recognition of that.

  Honestly, it sounds more like you're jealous of
  his compensation relative to yours

I know it's hard to sound convincing, but trust me, I'm not: I am well-compensated (and negotiated for such), perhaps even more than he (don't want to get too detailed here).

Where I am upset about compensation is that we've hired an engineer getting orders of magnitude less equity and performing orders of magnitude better work. Even if I can't change comp, I worry about how the "good guy" must feel & how to retain him if I just continue to "shrug off" the cofounder problem.

It doesn't seem like there is much you can do about it though. If you don't have enough resources to retain the good employees that you need, that's a valid issue to raise with the CEO. He can either get you those resources, or else there could be staffing problems. I don't think anyone joining as an early engineer expects to get more equity than a co-founder though. And you yourself said that people like him. So morale-wise, it's probably fine as long as he finds somewhere else in the company to contribute more.

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